The rise, which was a surprise (well, a Wall Street version of a surprise, which is planned down to the second by companies, and therefore about as surprising as throwing yourself a surprise party), sent Yahoo shares up 9% in after-hours trading.

The increase, due to improvements in its search-ad system, is certainly good news for Yang, who has been in the midst of a 100-day No Sacred Cows Vision Quest since the last quarter.

In his call yesterday, Yang did not surprise much with a new strategy, noting Yahoo would focus on three areas: being the top destination for consumers (which is now apparently called a “starting point”); creating an open platform a la Facebook (which remains to be seen, given the owned-and-operated attitude of Yahoo over the years); and to be a killer ad network (best bet!).

“The Yahoo we envision today is very different from the Yahoo of a year ago,” said Yang.

Well, thank goodness.

But is it an official turnaround? While I give Yang props for his efforts, I would say not yet, since the quarter also brought a 4.6% drop in profits. This was better than expected, but still not a great trend in a fast-growing market.

And given that the revenue rise was helped by a comparison to a weak quarter a year ago and expectations were low, the drop in net income should be worrisome for anyone paying attention.

If Yahoo cannot improve its search share and traffic over the long term, for example, earnings are likely to remain flat without major cuts in expenses.

In other words, nice job, Jerry. But there’s a lot more life in that Jabberwock still, so you better sharpen up that snicker-snacking vorpal blade.

I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

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